And people complain about how WE use language?
Now for some facts. When I ask a saint in heaven to pray for me,I also address petitions on the same matter to God. So what, exactly, is the difference as regards intercession?
I didn't realize I was communicating so poorly...Metmon didn't seem to have a problem understanding what I said...
The dictionary term for intercessor is to act as a mediator...I don't need a mediator...I don't ask any one to be an intercessor for me (except for the Holy Spirit) since no one has that ability and I don't need it anyway......I do not accept as biblical (or true) that any saint or Saint is an intercessor for anyone...
I of course love for other Christians to pray TO GOD for me but never as a mediator between me and Jesus (God)...There is no such thing...
Despite what some think of us, we all agree that there is a uniqueness to the mediating ministry of Christ.
Paul uses the word μεσἰτης (mesites- middle man, so, intermediary, mediator) only 6 times (only 3 unless we give him Hebrews).
Gal 3:19 and 3:20, first referring to Moses and then to the idea of a middle-man.
Here at I Tim 2:5
Heb 8:6, where IHS is a mediator of a better covenant than that of which (it is understood) Moses was mediator.
Heb 9;15 -- Jesus
Heb 12:24 and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
But we hit the big verse (as we seem so often to do in Paul) when he is giving instructions about what the church ought to do and how it ought to behave.
So what do we got here in the first verses of I Tim 2?
We should pray and give thanks for all men, BECAUSE Christ is the ONE mediator.
Now when I pray for you, I do so as a mediator, I think. Not a very good mediator, it's true. And, frankly, a TERRIBLE mediator, if I am relying on myself.
BUT I do not rely on myself. (Nor do I expect Mary or any great saint to rely on herself.) I am a member of the body of THE Mediator. Therefore, timidly if I think of myself, but boldly and gratefully if I fix my mind on Jesus, I pray for others and ask others to pray for me.
So, for my thinking, this whole thing comes down to the "in Christ" concept which figures so greatly in Paul, (And, I might add, in John, with his wonderful use of μἐνω, meno, abide).